[Golos] Maelstrom 2: Erratic Boogaloo

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Dragoon
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Post by Dragoon » 3 years ago

MAELSTROM 2: ERRATIC BOOGALOO


Image

This is the central illusion in life: that randomness is a risk, that it is a bad thing.
--- Nassim Nicholas Taleb in "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder", 2012.
(No, I haven't read this book. I just wanted to begin with an inspirational quote. It sounds more serious.)

What is this deck about?

This deck is all about adrenaline and excitement. It makes heavy use of mechanics that will involve some kind of luck: cascade, clash, flip-a-coin, polymorphism and pretty much anything that deals with revealing the top of your library. This deck will probably mostly resonate with Timmy players. Even though it heavily emphasizes randomness, it doesn't introduce chaos on large scales during the game and so should be enjoyable to play against as well. A fair warning though, this is a theme deck, not a power deck and it should not be played at semi-competitive levels and above.

You might like this deck if you:
  • are optimistic by nature
  • enjoy playing around a theme and sticking to it as much as possible
  • enjoy playing powerful and subpar cards altogether without caring too much
  • don't like paying mana costs
  • like swingy plays
  • like creatures
  • like Golos but are afraid of being the target of your playgroup every single game
You might not like this deck if you:
  • are pessimistic by nature
  • put an emphasis on synergy and power above all
  • only like powerful cards
  • want to pay for everything
  • enjoy playing control and/or combo
  • don't like creatures and prefer instants and sorceries
  • don't like Golos and have sworn an oath to tear and burn each and every copy you happen to stumble accross
What is fun about randomness?


In the eyes of some players, randomness is something you should stay away from as much as possible. In my eyes though, I think it provides some interesting benefits for whoever doesn't strive to win at all costs and build their deck accordingly. I see mainly three advantages to it, which happens to also be the ones that Mark Rosewater talked about in one of his old articles from 2009:
  • The most obvious one is the element of surprise. Are you excited when you open booster packs? Are you glad to see new spoilers of the next set? This deck is built to feed on those feelings. It lets you tap into the unknown. Randomness creates opportunities for swingy plays and memorable moments.
  • The second one is the added variance. This is not as much needed in our format but if you tend to play the same decks over and over again, it constitutes a welcome addition that will add to the longevity of the deck.
  • Finally, it emphasizes tactics and opportunism over strategy. When piloting this deck, you will have to react and adapt to what has come up. There's no tutors, no definite lines of play, no strategic guide to follow. It's entirely up to you and your skills. While this deck can look like the biggest nightmare for Spike players, it might let them hone their skills just like limited does.

Deck History

I first started playing this deck when the first wave of commander precons were published, in 2011. At the time, Ruhan of the Fomori was the general and the deck was mostly your typical run-of-the-mill chaos deck playing stuff like Planar Chaos and Grip of Chaos and Game of Chaos and ... Needless to say, it was pretty much a nightmare to play against and had no hope of winning whatsoever (but my playgroup was kind enough to let me play it from time to time).

I started to lose interest until Planechase 2012 came around and with it the return of the cascade mechanic and the printing of Maelstrom Wanderer. I revamped my old deck and started to focus more on "value play" in which randomness was just the way to deliver that value. That iteration was much more well received and it was also more fun to play.

No more big changes were made until the release of Commander 2016 and the Entropic Uprising precon. I changed the commander to Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, which was then replaced by Thrasios, Triton Hero and Vial Smasher the Fierce shortly after. The precon added a lot of new toys in the mix and gave the deck a considerable power boost. Four colours allowed the deck to really part ways with most of the "filler" cards and it became a blast to play.

This brings us to 2019 and the release of the now infamous Golos, Tireless Pilgrim. I couldn't believe it when I saw it, this commander was the perfect fit for this deck! On top of that, playing five colours meant being able to play any card that fits the theme now and in the future.

Why play Golos?

...Really? Well, power level reasons aside, Golos let us play all five colours which allows us to choose among all Magic cards that happen to fit our randomness theme. It also let us ramp and since our curve is rather high, it's a welcome addition. Obviously, his activated ability is just nuts and it so happens to fit our theme perfectly well. Nevertheless, let's take a look at the other options: I don't think going with less than three colours will end up being viable. Out of all the choices presented above, I firmly think Golos is the best one as it covers our weaknesses much more efficiently. On top of that, we can pretty much play most of the other options in the 99, so we don't really have to choose this way.

Strategy, Schmategy

Deckbuilding philosophy


So like I said before in the introduction, this is first and foremost a theme deck. I've built it with the restriction that all nonland cards must have some kind of random effect. The whole rules text doesn't need to be random, but the random part cannot be trinket text either. For example, I do not consider Ral Zarek to be a random card, as he is mainly played for his +1 and -2 abilities. As far as what effects qualify for this criterion, I will use the definition made by MaRo when explaining the design of the cascade mechanic:
I am going to define randomness as a state that, if not interfered with, has unpredictability.

-- Mark Rosewater in "Kind Acts of Randomness", posted in Making Magic on December 21, 2009
"Image"
I will also include in MaRo's definition all the "mini games" cards that involve some kind of mind game such as Master of Predicaments, Liar's Pendulum or Goblin Game. While it is not random in the sense that there's no dice roll or coin flip involved, it is still unpredictable without outside interference such as a prior agreement between the players.

This restriction means we won't be using obvious synergy pieces like Sensei's Divining Top or Crystal Ball, as those cards do not fit our definition. The only exception to that rule is Orcish Librarian, which is technically not a random effect, but it feels close enough to be worthy of inclusion. Note that doesn't mean we won't ever play those types of effects. It's just that we won't play anything that is there just to manipulate the top of our library. Only the land cards can escape our restriction, but since the deck is five colours, the number of utility lands we can run is implicitly reduced. This way, there is not a ton of room to exploit that "loophole". I chose to go with utility lands that will act as catalysts for our deck without directly impacting the board, but that will be reviewed in more details in the "Card choices" section below.

As far as the general deck-building strategy goes, the main feature of the deck is that we will be casting spells and cheating permanents at random from our library. This means it is not in our best interest to include stuff that requires specific timing such as Camouflage or Scattering Stroke. Also, when casting spells without paying their mana costs, X must be 0, so no Genesis Wave or Villainous Wealth either! Now the big question is: how do we win? Our main problem is that our theme doesn't include obvious synergies and interaction in and of itself, but we can still figure out some patterns. A lot of our cards will end up letting us cast spells for free, and what type of spells can potentially win games by themselves? Creatures of course! So the deck will heavily emphasizes creatures and ways to cheat them out. As such, as long as a reasonable amount of them have a sizeable body, we should be able to win some games.

Rules clarification


Rules wise, the deck doesn't require a deep understanding of Magic rules but they are some points on which I would like to attract your attention to.

Even though it doesn't look like it, there is some subtlety that comes up when playing random effects, especially the ones that require a coin flip or asks to destroy/exile something chosen at random. If we activate Boompile for example, anyone that wants to respond to the possible board wipe must do so at that moment. When the coin is flipped, it is too late and everything will be destroyed ... or not. But they won't know it at the time they have to react. The same goes for cards like Capricious Efreet: they won't know which target will end up being destroyed until the ability starts resolving, at which point it will be too late to react. One point to note in that instance, though, is that if some of the targets are illegal at the time of the resolution, the spell or ability will still try to resolve as much as possible. This means the affected permanent will be chosen among the remaining targets, so there is some room for shenanigans and politics. The gatherer is usually well documented on the subject so, in doubt, go check out the gatherer page of the card.

As for Golos' activated ability, while it lets us cast spells for free, we still have to cast them at sorcery speed unless they are instants or have flash. We can activate Golos' ability at any time, but it might not be wise to do so outside of our own turn, before our end step. The same applies to Urza, Lord High Artificer and Magus of the Mind. Keep in mind that we can also only play one land on our turn when the stack is empty, so it's better to wait until those abilities have resolved before playing our land for the turn.

The List

By function
Approximate Total Cost:

By type

Planeswalkers (1)

Artifacts (3)

Approximate Total Cost:

Card choices

Savage casting


This section will regroup the cards that let us cast spells without having to pay their mana costs. Sometimes from our library, sometimes from our opponents' libraries, sometimes from both!

Creatures
  • Djinn of Wishes: Limited number of uses and we need to sink mana into it, but it's a 4/4 flying body at the very least.
  • Etali, Primal Storm: Certainly one of the biggest role players. The tides can turn each time it attacks.
  • Intet, the Dreamer: While we have to connect and pay to get its effect, the 6/6 flying body can already be enough on its own.
  • Maelstrom Wanderer: The second priciest spell in the deck, but that double cascade trigger can certainly make up for it. Also mass haste is more than welcome in a creature heavy deck!
  • Magus of the Mind: Slow, but it can let us double up on a big turn to make it even bigger.
  • Master of Predicaments: Cute mind game. The opponent should always choose "5 or higher" as to not let us gain too much of an advantage. But if they know that we know that, they know that we'll most likely pick a 4 or less CMC spell. So why not take the other option and deny us our advantage altogether? But if they know that we know that they know that we know ...
  • Rashmi, Eternities Crafter: At the very least a free draw once per turn, a solid pick.
  • Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign: Same than Rashmi, but with a more sizeable body.
Enchantments Other considerations
  • Everything else with cascade: While cascade is always welcome, the card itself must be able to somewhat stand on its own and most of the cascade cards have basically too small of an impact on the game
  • Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder: While a strong card, it does not work well with our general who discourages us to cast cards from our hands.
  • Fallen Shinobi: Needs to be able to connect, and ninjutsu doesn't help if the shinobi was "savagely" cast or even put directly onto the battlefield.

Wild entering


This section will regroup the cards that put permanents directly onto the battlefield, without giving our opponents the chance to counter them or even react to their arrival.

Creatures
  • Gyruda, Doom of Depths: Around half of our creatures fit his criterion, and we run a lot of creatures. We can also pick from our opponents' cards if nothing good came up on our side.
  • Illuna, Apex of Wishes: Mutate is hard to trigger in this deck, as it is incompatible with savage casting and even the other cards from this section. But it is still at the very least a 6/6 flample body.
  • Winota, Joiner of Forces: While we dot not play a ton of humans in the deck, we can easily get 3+ triggers per turn, which makes up for it. The fact that the newly arrived Humans get indestructible also makes it safe, as some of them do not have big bodies.
Planeswalker
  • Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast: A good polymorph engine, where we are guaranteed to hit something pricier than what we've spend. The +1 can come in handy at times. His ultimate isn't random but it is unlikely we'll get to it anyway, as his -2 is his most interesting ability.
Enchantments
  • Lurking Predators: Given our number of creatures, this one's an obvious choice.
  • Shifting Shadow: This one allows us to trade board building for speed. It is very swingy, but sometimes you only need to keep that creature for one turn.
Sorcery
  • Primal Surge: The curve topper. Since the deck doesn't plan to run many instants and sorceries anyway, we might as well go for it! This is the closest we can get to a self-contained wincon.
Other considerations
Token generators


Tokens can be useful to fuel other engines, mainly the ones that deal with polymorphing effects. They can also serve as chump blockers.

Creatures
  • Oona, Queen of the Fae: The tokens have flying, and even without mana to sink into the card, it is still a 5/5 flying body. Obviously even better when there is a ton of mono-coloured decks in your meta.
  • Stitcher Geralf: Slow and requires mana to activate, but can potentially produce big bodies.
Enchantment Other considerations
  • Atla Palani, Nest Tender: Potentially powerful but slow and requires too much setup, we don't run "true" sac outlets so we can't really abuse her ability.
  • Druidic Satchel: Cute, but doesn't do anything unless we sink mana into it. Since we don't know what type of effect we'll get, it might be hard to know when it is the right thing to leave mana open to activate it.
  • Molten Birth: A one-shot effect that doesn't come attached to a creature. Not useful enough on its own.

Recursion


There's not much in this section. Even though reanimation spells are generally handy, we cannot control their timing nor their target here, which makes them a bit too unreliable. I tried to stick with the most useful ones.

Creatures
  • Moldgraf Monstrosity: Big dumb body. We cannot reliably get its trigger as we do not run any sac outlet, but it is still, at worst, an 8/8 trample body that people will hesitate to trade with.
  • Tariel, Reckoner of Souls: Flying body that can reanimate creatures for free, at instant speed. We can't go much higher than that with our theme.
Enchantment
  • Deadbridge Chant: Slow, but it has the merit of creating its own graveyard if need be, so it is not a problem to flip it within the first activation of Golos. Also, it can cheat out creatures, which we happen to run in large quantities.
Other considerations
  • Ghastly Conscription: A fun one, but requires too much mana to do anything impressive.
  • Haunted Fengraf: Not much room for colourless lands and I can't see myself activate this ability outside of a desperation move.
  • Kheru Lich Lord: Slow and mana intensive. The body isn't impressive either

Ramp


Sadly, there's not a ton of random ramp spells and this deck is quite hungry for mana so I had to devote some slots from the land base to compensate.

Creatures
  • Coiling Oracle: Really hard to consider this one as ramp, but it has no other useful purpose otherwise...
  • Elvish Rejuvenator: Good card, almost guaranteed ramp and leaves behind a 1/1 body that can be polymorphed later on or be used as a chump blocker if needed.
  • Nylea, Keen-Eyed: It only works for creatures but we have so many of them. The ability to potentially draw cards or at the very least surveil can also be useful.
  • Parcelbeast: Repeatable Coiling Oracle. It doesn't need much mana to be activated and, if mutated, can tap itself immediately.
  • Risen Reef: Not as repeatable as Parcelbeast, but we do run a few elementals.
  • Selvala, Explorer Returned: An all-star in this deck. She gives us mana and life, two things the deck struggles with. Plus making everyone draw gives us some political reach as well.
  • Urza, Lord High Artificer: It might be surprising to see him in this section, especially since we don't run many artefacts. The fact that he ETBs with a mana dork is however very useful in this deck. His other ability, while stronger, is not as much needed since this is our deck's speciality. The fact that he transforms Golos into a mana dork as well is icing on the cake.
Artefact Sorcery
  • Recross the Paths: Surprisingly helpful, it does not help with fixing sadly. The fact that our curve is rather high plays in our favour in this case, as we have an increased chance to get it back and use it again! Note that the land doesn't come into play tapped.
Lands
  • Gaea's Cradle: Famously strong. If you can't afford it, Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun is still very good, just half off-theme since the front is a nonland card with no random effects.
  • Gemstone Caverns: Hey, it's an on theme land and can sometimes be really helpful. I just considered it as a utility colourless land when building the mana base.
  • Krosan Verge: This deck doesn't usually do much in the early game and the ramp combined with the fixing provided by this land (we play the whole cycle of Triomes after all) is very helpful.
  • Temple of the False God: I wouldn't usually consider Temple of the False God in a deck with so many colours but the fact that Golos can go look for it if needed is a strong argument. I could easily replace it with an Ancient Tomb though, but we have so few ways to gain life that I'm not willing to run pain lands unless they can fix our mana. Especially since this is not a fast deck.
Other considerations
  • Explorer's Scope & Into the Wilds: It doesn't do anything on its own and if you happen to whiff, the card just stays there.
  • Oblivion Sower: I like it but six mana is too much for a ramp effect. Also, its trigger works on cast only, which means cheating it directly onto the battlefield will feel bad.
  • Skyward Eye Prophets: Too much mana
  • Thrasios, Triton Hero: It will be rare for us to keep four mana open to sink into this guy's ability. And if you don't use its ability, it's just an unimpressive 2/3 body.

Draw


Given our theme and commander, we won't be hungry for card advantage. Cards that only provides us with draw power and nothing else do not provide enough to make the cut. As such, our selection here only includes creatures:

Creatures
  • Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths: A fun card and an (almost) unique twist on a classic effect.
  • Combustible Gearhulk: Given our curve, this card can do an absurd amount of damage if the opponent denies our draw.
  • Demonlord Belzenlok: Such a fun guy to hang out with. A bit risky if we're low on life though, but a 6/6 flample body is nothing to scoff at.
  • Niv-Mizzet Reborn: Maybe not the best option but still gives us around two cards on average and comes attached to a 6/6 flying body.
  • Sapling of Colfenor: Repeatable and reliable enough, given our high density of creatures. We should statistically be gaining life. The indestructibility can also be helpful from time to times.
  • Twilight Prophet: Given the number of permanents we play, ascend is not an obstacle at all. Given our curve, she might heal us and hurt our opponents for a reasonable amount on average. A perfect fit, albeit a bit slow.
Other considerations
  • Augury Adept: Needs to connect and the deck cannot reliably provide evasion.
  • Fblthp, the Lost: Sadly doesn't synergise that well with the deck (Golos exiles before casting, so does Urza, so does cascade, etc).
  • Oracle's Vault: The second ability is interesting but 2 mana for an impulsive draw doesn't do enough.
  • Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom: There's not many coin flip cards in the deck and on its own, it's just a 1/4 body that will sometimes draw us a card.

Removal


We will now review our removal suite. This is probably one of the hardest sections to fill, as most of those cards are either old and inefficient, or recent and inefficient. Still, bad removal is removal nonetheless and we shouldn't be stingy with our ability to interact with our opponents! Sadly, there's no much room for sweepers as we cannot control the timing of their arrival.

Creatures
  • Capricious Efreet: Slow but unique effect. Note that while we have to choose one of our own permanents, we can choose either zero, one or two permanents from our opponents. This means we can use this as a pseudo sac outlet if need be, or try to increase the chances to remove a problematic permanent by also increasing our risks to blow up one of our permanents. It works well with our indestructible stuff (sadly can't target Cascading Cataracts) or disposable bodies like tokens.
  • Deadeye Tracker: Bad card is bad, but it is the only graveyard hate option at our disposal.
  • Goblin Archaeologist: Silly and inefficient but that flavour text is worth a hundred points.
  • Goblin Assassin: Edict type of effects can be good against voltron decks. We sadly don't run many goblins ourselves but our opponents might run one or two of them and be caught off guard.
  • Keranos, God of Storms: While it might draw us a card from time to time, it will mostly be bolting our opponent's stuff or face. Sadly there's very few ways to trigger its ability on the other players' turns.
  • Mogg Assassin: This one is particular in that we should only be aiming to lose the flip. This is a political card: target the least threatening creature on the board and strike a deal with its controller, to try to get rid of another, more problematic creature (that is not ours, obviously). It is tricky and limited in scope, but an instant speed repeatable removal is not something to be ignored when our options are this limited.
  • Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire: Certainly one of the most swingy cards in the deck. We can try to upgrade our useless stuff while simultaneously trying to downgrade our opponents' useful stuff. Note that we must target something on each player's board.
Artefact
  • Boompile: Certainly the best kind of sweeper this deck could have hoped for! If it shows up during a cascade trigger or one of Golos' activations, we can just cast it and wait for the right time to activate it.
  • Proteus Staff: Although limited to sorcery speed, it is still repeatable removal. Beware of the drawback though, only deal with what needs to be dealt with. We can also use it on our own stuff if nothing is too dangerous outside.
Enchantments
  • Captivating Glance: The key here is to clash with an opponent that is not the creature's controller. This way, we can at least ensure the creature will leave its actual controller's side. Note that the control effect doesn't wear off if the enchantment is removed as it is granted by a trigger and not a continuous effect such as Control Magic.
  • Counterbalance: The only type of counterspell this deck can afford to run. Admittedly, it has more to do with the fact that it is the only Amonkhet Invocation I could fit in this deck, but it has been surprisingly efficient at times. At worst, it can read something like "At the beginning of your end step, reveal the top card of your library. As long as this card stays on top of your library, your opponents can't cast spells with the same converted mana cost as that card.", which is still decent.
  • Haphazard Bombardment: Incredibly slow, but it can be a 3-for-1 if it stays long enough and it can also bypass hexproof/shroud/protection. Note that if we put aim counters on indestructible permanents, they won't be counted in the "lottery roll". (see the Gatherer page for reference).
Instant Sorcery
  • Last One Standing: A good sweeper for the deck. Chances are that the surviving creature won't be that dangerous.
Other considerations
  • Rakdos, the Showstopper: Sadly, his ETB is mandatory which means he's dangerous when directly put onto the battlefield from the library.
  • The Great Aurora: To be honest, I'm still debating on this one. On one hand, we play a high number of permanents, so we should be able to get back up to speed faster than our opponents since we might get more lands than them. But on the other hand, our curve is really high and our cheat engines are now gone.

Miscellaneous


This section contains everything that did not fit in the other categories.

Creatures
  • Daxos of Meletis: Lifegain is always welcome. We do not plan on necessarily casting the spell though, as we need to pay for it and we don't like that.
  • Haktos the Unscarred: A heavy hitter with a unique protection ability
  • Orcish Librarian: The only card that is there just to manipulate our library. While it is not technically random in the sense that the random part of the effect doesn't really affect the game, it still feels close enough.
  • Territorial Hellkite: I am not a huge fan of the "attack at random" creatures but this one does make the cut as it has a big evasive body that can attack right away and doesn't accidentally focus a player.
  • Vial Smasher the Fierce: A solid source of burn damage, especially considering our ability to cast big spells. It can accidentally focus players though, so I might draw you some ire.
  • Woodvine Elemental: Considering the number of creatures this deck runs, a mass pump spell can be devastating.
Enchantments
  • Path of Discovery: Sometimes a draw, sometimes a pump effect coupled with a surveil ability. Not an all star, but it gets the job done.
  • Path of Mettle // Metzali, Tower of Triumph: While it is a bit hard to flip, this card can offer us ramp and removal, two things the deck struggle with. The ETB on the front side won't matter most of the time, but can help if we are facing a tokens deck.
Lands
  • Alchemist's Refuge; Flash is a great tool to add to our arsenal since our deck can be considerably slow with all those "At the beginning of your upkeep ..." triggers.
  • Flamekin Village: Haste is a powerful enabler for our creatures, as a good chunk of them needs to deal combat damage or at least attack to do their stuff. Since we do run some elementals, the land might come in untapped from time to time (although unlikely)
  • Shizo, Death's Storehouse: We do run tons of legendary creatures, and fear is a good way to achieve our goal of hitting players with them.
Other considerations
  • Naya Soulbeast; Why is this a cast trigger? And why isn't it at least a 1/1 so that it can at least survive entering the battlefield without being cast?

The End Step

There you have it! It was the first time I wrote such a long text in English, so I apologize if I've made any mistake or if some of my sentences sounded weird. I wanted to present this deck because I wanted to show people that it is possible to build around randomness, without being obnoxious to play against and/or so weak that the deck might as well be non-existent at the table. I hope it can also calm the idea that "all Golos decks are evil" that has rised over the last few months. As time went by, I came to like this deck more and more and took pleasure trying to "optimize" it as best as I could, while staying true to my thematic restriction. It is currently my favourite deck to play!

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Dragoon
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Post by Dragoon » 3 years ago

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